Two-electron cusp in the double ionization of helium

Abstract

We analyze the double ionization of He under the impact of 100 keV He{sup 2+} projectiles. The process is described within the framework of the impact parameter and frozen-correlation approximations where the one-electron events are treated by the continuum distorted wave method. Correlation between the emitted electrons, which plays an important role in forming the shape of the differential distribution of the electron emission, is described by the Coulomb density of states approximation (CDS). Special attention is paid to the region of the two-electron cusp that has been observed in a recent experiment for 100 keV He{sup 0}+He collisions [L. Sarkadi and A. Orban, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 133201 (2008)]. In the cusp region the correlated motion of the two electrons is influenced dominantly by the outgoing projectile, that is, the correlation function of the CDS treatment is expected to depend on the electron momenta measured relative to the projectile rather than to the target nucleus. A qualitative agreement with the experiment is achieved with a CDS model based on the use of such a projectile-centered correlation function that applies effective charges as given in the dynamically screened three-Coulomb wave function.